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Magnetic Co0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully prepared via the combustion and calcination process, with an average particle diameter of 31.5 nm and a saturation magnetization of 25.25 emu·g-1, they were employed to adsorbe Congo red (CR) from wastewater, the Pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm were consistent with the adsorption data, indicating that their adsorption was a multilayer chemisorption process, the thermodynamic investigation showed that the adsorption was a favored exothermic process. The ionic strength of Cl- in CR solution had no obvious effect on the adsorption efficiency of Co0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles, and the maximum adsorbance was 58.3 mg·g-1 at pH 2, decreasing as the pH of the CR solutions increased from 2 to 12. The ion leaching experiment and XRD demonstrated that Co0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles had excellent stability, and the relative removal rate was 93.85% of the first time after 7 cycles. Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy demonstrated that CR was adsorbed onto Co0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles, and the electrical conductivity of Co0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles decreased after adsorption of CR. Magnetic Co0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles displayed a promising application in wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer (CC) is the most common malignant tumor in women, and its prognosis is poor. The key genes and pathways of CC need to be further discovered. GEO2R was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEG), GO and KEGG enrichment were analyzed by DAVID. Then, the PPI network is constructed with STRINGS. The HUB gene and module of DEGS were obtained by Cytoscape. Finally, GEPIA also analyzed the differential expression and survival of key genes. 234 DEG were extracted from GSE9750. The uterus is the fourth organ highlighted in the concentrated analysis. The functional changes of DEGS are mainly related to cell cycle progression, cell cycle, helicase activity, DNA helicase activity, exosome and p53 signal pathway. In addition, five HUB genes and one key module were identified. Survival analysis showed that MCM2 and GINS2 were significantly correlated with overall survival. Expression analysis showed that MCM2 and GINS2 were highly expressed in cancer tissues, but low in normal tissues, which was consistent with the results of GEO analysis. Correlation analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between MCM2 and GINS2. This study suggests that MCM2 and GINS2 may be new biomarkers to predict the prognosis of CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic MnFe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully prepared by the rapid combustion method at 500 °C for 2 h with 30 mL absolute ethanol, and were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, VSM, and XPS techniques, their average particle size and the saturation magnetization were about 25.3 nm and 79.53 A·m2/kg, respectively. The magnetic MnFe2O4 nanoparticles were employed in a fixed bed experimental system to investigate the adsorption capacity of Hg0 from air. The MnFe2O4 nanoparticles exhibited the large adsorption performance on Hg0 with the adsorption capacity of 16.27 μg/g at the adsorption temperature of 50 °C with the space velocity of 4.8×104 h-1. The VSM and EDS results illustrated that the prepared MnFe2O4 nanoparticles were stable before and after adsorption and successfully adsorbed Hg0. The TG curves demonstrated that the mercury compound formed after adsorption was HgO, and both physical and chemical adsorption processes were observed. Magnetic MnFe2O4 nanoparticles revealed excellent adsorbance of Hg0 in air, which suggested that MnFe2O4 nanoparticles be promising for the removal of Hg0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods were successfully prepared via calcination reduction process using glucose as reductant, and they were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and VSM techniques. The influences of additive concentration, solution volume, reaction temperature and reaction time on morphology and the properties of Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods were investigated. Firstly, α-Fe2O3 nanorods were prepared by the hydrothermal approach, and the FeCl3 concentration of 20 mM, the NH4H2PO4 concentration of 0.96 mM, the hydrothermal volume of 60 mL, the hydrothermal temperature of 180 °C, and hydrothermal time of 12 h were selected as the optimum conditions. Secondly, magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods calcined at 600 °C for 3 h with the mass ratio of 1:20 for α-Fe2O3 nanorods and glucose were constructed with largest saturation magnetization of 78.2 emu/g, their average length and average diameter were about 215.0 nm and 79.2 nm, respectively. An optimization process for the fabrication of magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods was introduced in this paper. Thereinto, α-Fe2O3 nanorods as a precursor were fabricated by hydrothermal method, and using glucose as a reduction agent to prepare the results products by high-temperature calcination. The influences of FeCl3 concentrations, NH4H2PO4 concentration, solution volume, hydrothermal temperature, hydrothermal time and the ratio of the precursors and glucose on the morphologies and magnetic properties of α-Fe2O3 and magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods were investigated, and their influence rules were revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterogeneity of aging has been investigated at cellular and organic levels in the mouse model and human, but the exploration of aging heterogeneity at whole‐organism level is lacking. C. elegans is an ideal model organism for studying this question as they are self‐fertilized and cultured in the same chamber. Despite the tremendous progress made in single‐cell proteomic analysis, there is few single‐worm proteomics studies about aging. Here, we apply single‐worm quantitative mass spectrometry to quantify the heterogenous proteomic changes during aging across individuals, a total of 3524 proteins from 157 C. eleagns individuals were quantified. A reconstructed C. elegans aging trajectory and proteomic landscape of fast‐aging individuals were used to analyze the heterogeneity of C. elegans aging. We characterized inter‐individual proteomic variation during aging and revealed contributing factors that distinguish fast‐aging individuals from their siblings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryptotanshinone (CT), a lipophilic compound extracted from roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Lamiaceae) (Danshen), has multiple properties in diseases, such as pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer, and osteoarthritis. Our previous findings suggest that CT plays a protective role in cerebral stroke. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying CT protection in ischaemic stroke remain unclear. This study examines the effect of CT on ischaemic stroke. We used the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rat (Sprague-Dawley rats, 200 ± 20 g, n = 5) model with a sham operation group was treated as negative control. MCAO rats were treated with 15 mg/kg CT using intragastric administration. Moreover, TGF-β (5 ng/mL) was used to treat MCAO rats as a positive control group. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of CT on CD4+ cell damage was 485.1 μg/mL, and median effective concentration (EC50) was 485.1 μg/mL. CT attenuates the infarct region in the MCAO model. The percentage of CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ Treg cells in the peripheral blood of the MCAO group was increased with CT treatment. The protein level of FOXP3 and the phosphorylation of STAT5 were recovered in the CD4+CD25+ Treg cells of model group after treated with CT. Importantly, the effects of CT treatment were blocked by treatment with the inhibitor STAT5-IN-1 in CD4+ T cells of the MCAO model. Our findings not only enhance the understanding of the mechanisms underlying CT treatment, but also indicate its potential value as a promising agent in the treatment of ischaemic stroke. Further study will be valuable to examine the effects of CT on patients with ischaemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world. As far as we know, no biomarker has been widely accepted for early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of GC. The purpose of this study is to find potential biomarkers to predict the prognosis of GC. The differentially expressed gene (DEG) was analyzed from GSE93774. Enrichr was used to analyze the gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway, the enrichment of transcription factors (TF), miRNA, and kinase. GO analysis showed DEGs was enriched in the process of amino acid metabolism. Pathway results showed DEGs was mainly enriched in cell cycle. Propionyl CoA carboxylase alpha (PCCA), Enoyl coenzyme A hydratase short chain 1 (ECHS1), and 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (HADH) have prognostic value in patients with GC. ECHS1 and HADH genes were significantly associated with disease-free survival. There was a significant correlation between PCCA and overall survival rate. The results of this study suggest that PCCA, ECHS1, and HADH may be new biomarkers for predicting the prognosis of GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is a widespread agricultural problem in arable soils of the whole world. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying Zn‐deficiency response are largely unknown. Here, we analyzed the transcriptomic profilings of soybean leaves and roots in response to Zn deficiency through Illumina's high‐throughput RNA sequencing in order to understand the molecular basis of Zn‐deficiency response in the plants. A total of 614 and 1011 gene loci were found to be differentially expressed in leaves and roots, respectively, and 88 loci were commonly found in both leaves and roots. Twelve differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were randomly selected for validation by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and their fold changes were similar to those of RNA‐seq. Gene ontology enrichment analysis showed that ion transport, nicotianamine (NA) biosynthetic process and queuosine biosynthetic process were enriched in the upregulated genes, while oxidation–reduction process and defense response were enriched in the downregulated genes. Among the DEGs, 20 DEGs are potentially involved in Zn homeostasis, including seven ZRT, IRT‐related protein (ZIP) transporter genes, three NA synthase genes, and seven metallothionein genes; 40 DEGs are possibly involved in diverse hormonal signals such as auxin, cytokinin, ethylene and gibberellin; nine DEGs are putatively involved in calcium signaling; 85 DEGs are putative transcription factor genes. Nine DEGs were found to contain zinc‐deficiency‐response element in their promoter regions. These results could provide comprehensive insights into the soybean response to Zn deficiency and will be helpful for further elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of Zn‐deficiency response and Zn‐deficiency tolerance in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-mobility group box1 (HMGB1) exerts effects on inflammation by binding to receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) or Toll-like receptor 4. Considering that inflammation is involved in pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy, we herein attempted to investigate whether HMGB1 plays a role in myocardial hypertrophy in RAGE knockout mice as well as in the growth and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. The myocardial expression of RAGE was not significantly changed while TLR4 mRNA was upregulated in response to transverse aortic constriction (TAC) for 1 week. The myocardial expression of HMGB1 protein was markedly increased in TAC group when compared to the sham group. Heart weight to body weight ratio (HW/BW) and lung weight to body weight ratio (LW/BW) were evaluated in RAGE knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice 1 week after TAC. Significant larger HW/BW and LW/BW ratios were found in TAC groups than the corresponding sham groups, but no significant difference was found between KO and WT TAC mice. Similar results were also found when TAC duration was extended to 4 weeks. Cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were treated with different concentrations of recombinant HMGB1, then cell viability was determined using MTT and CCK8 assays and cell apoptosis was determined by Hoechst staining and TUNEL assay. The results came out that HMGB1 exerted no influence on viability or apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. Besides, the protein expression levels of Bax and Bcl2 in response to different concentrations of HMGB1 were similar. These findings indicate that HMGB1 neither exerts influence on cardiac remodeling by binding to RAGE nor induces apoptosis of cardiomyocytes under physiological condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low phosphate (Pi) availability is an important limiting factor affecting soybean production. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for low Pi stress response and tolerance remain largely unknown, especially for the early signaling events under low Pi stress. Here, a genome-wide transcriptomic analysis in soybean leaves treated with a short-term Pi-deprivation (24 h) was performed through high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology. A total of 533 loci were found to be differentially expressed in response to Pi deprivation, including 36 mis-annotated loci and 32 novel loci. Among the differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 303 were induced and 230 were repressed by Pi deprivation. To validate the reliability of the RNA-seq data, 18 DEGs were randomly selected and analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction), which exhibited similar fold changes with RNA-seq. Enrichment analyses showed that 29 GO (Gene Ontology) terms and 8 KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathways were significantly enriched in the up-regulated DEGs and 25 GO terms and 16 KEGG pathways were significantly enriched in the down-regulated DEGs. Some DEGs potentially involved in Pi sensing and signaling were up-regulated by short-term Pi deprivation, including five SPX-containing genes. Some DEGs possibly associated with water and nutrient uptake, hormonal and calcium signaling, protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation and cell wall modification were affected at the early stage of Pi deprivation. The cis-elements of PHO (phosphatase) element, PHO-like element and P responsive element were present more frequently in promoter regions of up-regulated DEGs compared to that of randomly-selected genes in the soybean genome. Our transcriptomic data showed an intricate network containing transporters, transcription factors, kinases and phosphatases, hormone and calcium signaling components is involved in plant responses to early Pi deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]